I am Foot
by kIrEigIrL
Summary: Oneshot. Written in the POV of one of the Foot members. Just because they're in one clan, doesn't mean they're all bad. And just because they're in that clan, doesn't mean they want to be.


_Hiya. This is something I worked on the entire afternoon yesterday when I was supposed to be studying for a long test (haha, screw botany). Anyway, it's my first one-shot and I hope you guys like it._

_**Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.**_

_Enjoy!_

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It's during times like this that make me wonder how I became the way I am. I could vaguely remember myself as an innocent little girl, smiling, laughing, having fun like normal girls my age would. Or rather, should. But that little daydream was then. And this reality I'm facing is now.

Joining the Foot clan was nothing me or my twin brother, Yoshi, ever thought of doing. He wanted to become a doctor and save lives. A cardiologist, he told me once, because he wanted to fix hearts. Of course that wasn't tentatively possible but hey, give him a break, he was four.

Me, on the other hand, I wanted to be a singer. I had the voice for it too. I sang for him everyday and he encouraged me to practice more and more so I could grow up to fulfill my dream. He was a great brother to me. We were real close. In fact, we still are.

But our wistful thoughts were crushed painfully under of the weight of our parents' death. It was the night reality struck us so hard, we almost never got back up. And as I reflect upon it, we never really did. We found ourselves alone in the world with no one to rely on.

We were so miserable, so lonely without a family that when an opportunity such as the Foot clan scavenging for new soldiers came, we didn't hesitate to take the first proxy family we could get our hands on. That was four years ago.

Boy, did we realize how stupid and foolish we had been. Barely a few months after we joined the Foot had passed when we had had enough. Well, I was more sick of it than Yoshi was. I mean, he was disgusted too at what we were doing but his purpose for staying was due to his, and admittedly, mine as well, need to have a family, despite the whole head-to-toe-covered, weapon-manipulating shadow-sneaking ninja ordeal.

As for me, a day almost never went by that I didn't throw up at the harsh treatment, intense training and merciless killing. Yes, killing. We were wrought into cold, lethal assassins who wouldn't hesitant taking away someone else's life if he would become a hindrance to our goal.

Finally, Yoshi saw how unhappy I've been and planned a strategy for our escape.

We were caught and never had the guts to repeat our little rebellion again. The punishment was so ruthless and cruel that I thought death would have been a much better alternative. But no, they didn't kill us. I don't know why but apparently, they still had use for our abilities. We, Yoshi especially, showed so much potential they refused to give up.

Two years after that, we experienced our initial fight with the turtles. I found myself mystified when I first saw them; four talking, walking, ninjutsu-trained turtles, what's not to be completely stunned about? But I quickly learned that they were the adversaries and it was our duty to destroy them. It was an immensely difficult task to fulfill. They weren't _just_ good, they were _amazing_, and despite being terrapins, they kicked our butts so many times I lost count. Why? They had skill. Our only advantage was numbers. It's as simple as that.

But our _master_, some freako in an armor full of spikes who calls himself 'The Shredder' wasn't about to let us give up. We probably engaged into a hundred battles with those reptiles already and it was through those encounters that I saw how much they cared for one another. They were comrades. And they were friends. But most of all, they were brothers. I understood what it felt like to care for a brother. I have one. Every clash we get into, I worry my ass off about his welfare, silently praying he would come out of this alive. He always did.

So now, here we were again, trying to break apart that loving, however strange, family, simply because we were ordered to.

How wrong was that?

But I couldn't do anything about it. Neither could Yoshi. We are given commands and those commands are to be met without question. That was the number one rule in the Foot clan. A rule we had no choice but to obey.

_**KLANG!**_

My_taijijian_ met metal as I blocked one of the turtles' –the red-masked one– attack. I ducked, letting his sai whizz past my head. I heard his irate growl at missing his target and I immediately backed away, merging with group of Foot behind me, with every meaning of avoiding Red the whole evening. He scared me too much with his aggressiveness.

I soon discovered the Foot was losing. Again. Big surprise.

Not.

More than anything, I wanted to find my brother in the sea of black to assure myself he was okay. Yoshi was a great ninja, in fact, one of the best out of them all. He could have probably risen to the rank of Foot Elite if he wasn't so intent on watching out for me. He had good reason to, though. There were very few females in the clan and we had to work thrice as hard to stay in.

I only took a couple of steps when my back bumped into someone. I whirled around to face Orange, his _nunchaku_ spinning wildly on either side of him. He was the talkative one, always making jokes and side comments about everything. His carefree self grew on me pretty quickly. There were times when I wished I could respond to him. But no, talking during brawls was strictly forbidden. We were to fight in utter silence.

"Hey, haven't we met before?" he said conversationally like I was one of his closest friends as we exchanged blows. "You know, that night when we handed your butts to you like we're gonna do now!" He laughed and swept my feet from under me.

Damn. I sometimes lose a bit of my concentration around him. He makes me feel like our lives weren't on the line. I mean, come on, doesn't this guy take anything seriously? He was about to smack his weapon at my face when suddenly, he was thrown off his feet.

I snapped my head up to see one of the Foot… no, it was Yoshi. I could always tell it was him, despite our identical regardless-of-our-gender uniforms and he, me. It must be a twin thing.

"Stay down for the rest of the night, sis" he whispered to me before engaging in a fight with Purple using his weapons, twin _katar_. Pretending to be unconscious was what most of the Foot do when it was transparently clear who was winning. But no way was I going to take a break while my brother was out there, putting his life in danger.

I got up almost at once and we both ganged up on Purple. Yoshi shot me a glare but I ignored him. Purple wasn't too bad. Out of all the turtles, he was most passive.

_**Whap!**_His bo staff came at my hand. Ouch.

Well, I never said passive meant he wasn't as good as his brothers.

I winced. There goes my wrist. Yoshi was most likely smug right now and no doubt I'll be receiving a lecture on disobeying his orders when this was over. But he had a point.

Fighting with giant reptiles ten times more skilled than me was not fun. I had second thoughts of backing down when a blade came at me. I barely managed to avoid it.

My eyes widened with horror as I saw who I was up against. Blue. I gulped slightly. I mean, sure, Red was the most violent but Blue was deadly. He not only scared me but terrified me so much that I practically couldn't move due to fright. However, at the same time, Blue also fascinated me. Yeah, he was extremely dangerous but he was also gentle. I couldn't figure out how those two could work together.

So I stood there, rooted to the spot while he kept a wary eye on me, his twin _katana_ ready. I saw his features scrunch up in confusion. Why wasn't I attacking?

Good question. Too bad I didn't have an answer.

But suddenly, a thought struck me. This was my chance. I could take off my mask right now and tell him everything. I mean, it was obvious they were the good guys here, right? Then maybe… maybe he could help me and my brother find a way to escape our awful situation.

However, that balloon of hope ruptured all over my face when one of the Foot rammed into me, causing me to jerk forward, right into Blue, whose weapons were still raised. It happened in less than a second, he didn't have time to react.

I shut my eyes; hoping death would come quick when I suddenly felt myself being pushed to the ground. Utterly confused, I looked up and had to gasp.

Holy crap… _Yoshi_…

There he was, standing in front of Blue, a blade protruding from his back. His face was turned to my direction. Hot tears filled my eyes at once.

No… no… this couldn't be happening…

_**Thud.**_

Blue had removed his sword from my brother's stomach, requiring it to defend himself from three attacking Foot members.

Everything around me seemed to have faded away into nothingness. All I could see was my twin's body lying on the ground in a puddle of blood.

I stood up and backed away from his dead form. I couldn't believe it… I was fighting side by side with him barely seconds ago and now he… he…

For a second time that night, I felt my back collide with someone. I couldn't hold it in anymore. Forget all that silence shit. With the loss of my sibling still fresh in my mind, I screamed, surprising the one I bumped into.

It was Red.

"Whoa… what the-" He seemed to have realized that I was obviously not a male from the pitch of my shriek.

But instead of edging away from him, I staggered forward until my hands could touch his skin, which, surprisingly, wasn't rough but smooth and full of muscle.

"Please…" I whispered. "Please kill me…"

He was too taken aback at my odd request to do anything. Why? _Why_ won't he do it? Can't he see I wanted to die? Yoshi was my twin, my other half. There was no way I could go on with life without him by my side. Because he was my life. Just as I was his. We underwent too many challenges and difficulties together. I wasn't going to let death rip us apart.

"Kill me!" I demanded from Red.

"What're ya? Nuts?" was his retort. I clenched my hands and remembered my_taijijian_ was still with me. I pulled away, staring at it.

Fine, if he wasn't going to kill me, then I was going to do it myself. However, he seemed to read my mind and in one swift motion, pried the sword from my grasp.

I snapped my head at him. "What the hell?! Give that back, you ass!"

"Forget it," he replied, tossing away the weapon on the ground. "Ye ain't gonna kill yerself in front of me."

Furious at his intervention, I scowled darkly and without bothering to think, attacked him, bestowing upon him a series of well-aimed punches and kicks as I ignored my throbbing wrist. I was going to die tonight, one way or another.

But he knew what I was trying to do and instead, grabbed my arm and twisted it around my back, hindering my movements.

I struggled against him fiercely.

"Calm down, will ya?!"

But I was stubborn. "NO!" I shot back. "Let go! I said, let GO!"

He wouldn't budge. Screw all that damn muscle!

Then I noticed something that made me freeze. My brother's corpse. And a bunch of Foot ninajs were about to trample all over him. "No! NO! Get away from him!" I screeched.

Gathering all the strength I had left, I broke free of Red's grasp and ran to Yoshi. I managed to prevent him being squished like a pancake. But my actions only made tears form again as I stared at the body in my arms. Pulling him close to my chest, I broke down and cried.

I don't know how long I stayed that way but a hesitant hand on my shoulder made me realize that the combat was over. All the Foot had fled. And I was left with my brother's carcass and four mutated turtles, all of whom were silent. I didn't look up. I'm not sure whose hand it belonged to though I did take notice of the three fingers. I think it was Purple's.

I took off my brother's mask. His face stared back at me; his platinum blond hair was scruffy as usual and his crystal blue eyes were open. But he was smiling. That must have been why he was looking at me, trying to show me his last smile. However, I wasn't able to see it. Resisting the urge to cry all over again, I closed his eyes gently with my hand and removed my own mask as well.

I heard the turtles' surprised gasps, probably both at their surprise of encountering a female Foot ninja and my resemblance with my brother. We were identical, except for a few girlish traits on my face. I had cut my hair short a month after I joined the Foot because it annoyed me too much. I remember him teasing me about how I was ruining my chances of acquiring a husband with my appearance. I recalled shutting him up by wining against our one-on-one sparring match that afternoon. I only realized now that perhaps he had let me win that one, to make me feel better.

Without really knowing why, I suddenly started narrating to the turtles, our life story.

"You know, Yoshi and I never wanted to be part of the Foot," I said softly, stroking his hair. "Our parents died when we were young. It was so hard to get by in New York without a family to look after us. We were tossed from foster home to foster home until he finally got tired of being unwanted by everyone and obstinately refused the help of social workers. We lived alone for a year or so until we heard of this mysterious group who was recruiting people. It was the Foot. Having lived on the street for some time, both he and I knew how to fight. Much to our surprise, we actually got in. It felt so nice to be part of something finally. But that wonderful feeling didn't last. The Foot was nothing like the family we dreamt of. They were cruel, vicious and merciless. Every little mistake we made, we were punished severely. Once, we tried to run away but they caught us, taught us a long, hard lesson about disloyalty and we never tried to leave again. We almost lost each other that night. That's why, until now, we're still part of the Foot."

I stopped there. Silence fell upon us as they took in everything I had related. After awhile, I began to hum, still running my hand over my brother's soft hair. Yoshi always loved it when I sang. And I was going to do it one more time for him. The turtles remained quiet, taking part in listening at my voice.

I opened my mouth to begin the lyrics. However, I was cut when something struck me from behind, twice. I heard furious protests and cries of outrage and indignation from the turtles and I looked down. Two arrows were sticking out of my chest.

I should have known. Of course the Foot wasn't going to leave me alone with the turtles. Not alive, anyway. I knew too much about the clan.

Purple was on his knees beside me while the other three scanned the area for more signs of the Foot. But I knew there was none. They had come back, after all, only to kill me.

"Hang on there, you're going to me okay," Purple told me. "Guys," He turned to his brothers. "I need your help. We have to get her someplace safe."

But I shook my head, with eyes still on my twin while droplets of my blood fell down on his peaceful face. Darkness was starting to cloud my vision but I forced them to open long enough to look at the turtles. Blue was on my other side, helping Purple try to remove the arrows. Red was looking at me with so many emotions in his eyes. Orange simply sniffed and tried to give me a small, reassuring smile.

It was ironic, really. They weren't humans. They were mutated animals. Yet, here they were, comforting me, saying I was fine and telling me they were going to find a way to rescue me. Despite their appearance, they were more humane than any person I've ever met, save my brother, and I'm thankful I'm able to spend my last moments with them.

"I wish I could have… have…" My voice started to crack, growing weaker each second. "Known you guys… better… F'only we met… befo'e… Yoshi would'ave… have pro'bly… liked you… so much… Thank-" I gasped in pain and fell forward. Blue caught me.

"Listen, miss-"

"Yoko," I choked out. "My name is… Yoko."

I couldn't hear his next words anymore.

In the last seconds of my life, I realized something. Yoshi and I have been searching for a family more than half our lives, yet what we didn't know was that our family was right in front of us. We didn't need a father, a mother, all those aunts and uncles. Because we had each other. No matter how small it was or how pathetic it may seem, we were a family. If only we understood it before than maybe… maybe…

I closed my eyes.

Things wouldn't have ended on our sixteenth birthday.

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_And that's that. I don't know how the idea got into my head but it did and what you just read was the result.__ Until next time!_

_TMNT ROCKS!!! ;D _


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